Recent uboat pictures

[greenman407]

Gentlemen, and I use the term losely. Your all setup for today.

[greenman407]

As Good As My Word!

[greenman407]

Got to go back to my files and dig up some more. Ill have some more up during lunch.

[Von Hilde]

More like brave men in all the pictures, and almost all are gone now. And as far as all the boats go, long gone except for the handful of relics braced up and dry for people to look at. It would be great if someone refurbished one and made it seaworthy. Not much chance for a U boat, but there are several US fleet boats that could get seaworthy with some funding, before they rust away to a static display. Ill bet there are alot of old bubbleheads still kickin that would pay big money to catch a cruise on one.

[reddevil]

A lot of breve men on that pictures. Saddly, many of them on ethernal patrol.

[Von Hilde]

Good morning gentelmen, Its another wonderful day in paradise, when you can wake up to some good U boat pictures. Nice detail shots of various deck layouts and equipment. The pic of Topp's u47 in the lower left corner there is a close up of the netcutter of another boat in the foreground, that shows the attachment of front to the bow eyelet. Something I wasnt sure of when I was building my 1/32 U571, so I just winged it. Gotta fix that soon. The different decks for individual type IXs, not so much the lay out of the hatches location, but the deck plates and type of covers for each position. Like the long wood slats or steel plates with holes or diamondplate. for external torpedo stowage or later schnorkle stowage, and crew access hatch cover. Thats the little flip up door that covers the watertite hatch.

[greenman407]

[Von Hilde]

The Batiray (photo caption says bitiray for some reason) was never delivered to Turkey, so it isnt really a foregin boat since it was built in Kiel. It was commissioned in the DKM in 39 and served thru the war untill scuttled in 45. Two of the Type UA sister ships, Saldiray and Atilay, were delivered in June 39 to the Turks and one, the Yildiray, was built in Istanbul by German engineers, who never finished the project. Finally completed in 47, by Turks. The UA was basiclly a type IX modified to Turkish specs. That gun was a 105mm same as on the IXs. You can notice that in all the pictures, the crew is German. She was rather a successful boat, for being an Ugly Duck. Might be an interesting model to add to the flotilla, as well as a big Cow type x. Scratch built, large scale, naturally. Why do you suppose the captured U234 has a shack stuck at the end of the gangway? Guardhouse for the sentery, perhaps? She had boxes of U235 aboard, that the crew thought the Japanese passengers had miss labled, because they didnt know what boat they were on. I believe it was left aboard for a couple days before anybody realised it was uranium, slated for the Japanese bomb project. Ironiclly it was just enuff for the completion of the Manhattan project and did eventually did reach Japan in the end.

[greenman407]

VonHilde, Thanks for the extra info, very informative.

[Von Hilde]

Check out the condition of their boat, when they arrived, then check it when she left to go back to Japan. It looked like the "Overhaulin" TV guys got ahold of it. While the crew was runnin around in Germany, they partied hard with the muckey mucks, while the boat was being hauled and spiffied up for the ride home. I wouldnt be supprised if they had a bunch of secret "gifts" to take back with them. but as you say, they didnt get too far down the coast before getting sunk. I think right after their visit, the "Monsoon" boats started deploying to Souteast Asia. Did you know, that before the FA330 was used, there were plans to put a foldable floatplane aboard for scouting? The gyro was addapted but had drawbacks. Fair weather, was imparitive. It was nicknamed "Bachstelze" tail wagger because of its instability. It had a 500ft cable which was to be cut, in case of a dive, because it took too long to reel in. The SOP for the pilot was, every man for himself and ditch. Maby the boat could come back and find you when the coast was clear. Ha!! The angle of max hight above water, was only 250m which on a clear day would look over the horrizon about 46 km. Plenty time to get the guy down and line up a solution for surface action, but when the ASW aircraft came into the mix, that silly business was nixed. Ill bet some of the boats that had em, ditched them just to be rid of the hassel of diss assembly and storage. All the advances in the hydrophones and radar to locate targets over the horrizon, as the war progressed helped with their demise. Immagine the guy that had to be up there, trying to keep it steady, and get a bearing fix, knowing all the time if something happens, it will get cold and wet quick. I read that they had parachutes and a set of headphones and a mic. Never said anything about binocullars, but I think it may have taken two hands to fly steady. Parachute may have been for moral, since it probbablly wouldnt deploy at that hight, and the craft would autorotate to a somewhat soft landing. The foldable float plane was the Arado 231 prototype of what they were going to do with this

[greenman407]

COOL! Ive posted pictures of the Auto gyro in this thread but hadnt seen this film before. The segment in there about the Japanese I class boat visiting the Germans was very interesting as well. All the Japanese that you saw in the video were killed a short time later when their boat was sunk.

[Von Hilde]

The torpedo grease was used to help the loading process by easing it along the chainfall from storage to tube, and then it lessened the drag thru the water. They had a tin external surface and it got rusty in storage. They only greased them just before loading so as not to get the crew all messed by daily rubbing and touching. They got the hydro dynamic idea from slimey fish, so they say. I guess the surface rust must have had quite a drag. It was used by other navies as well. Russian, Japanese, Italian, Turkish, to name a few. We even experimented with the idea , secretly during the war. As for the FW gyro, theres a 1/72 model available, if you have any ideas about sticking one on a boat. I have the drawings, for scratch building one for larger scales just in case I want to put one on a bigger boat. Maby even a full size made out of modern material to tow from a fishing boat, like a Parasail. Basiclly, it looks easier than a Benson kit.

[satlite440]

found this today about the autogyro spotter on youtube

[greenman407]

Why did the U boat crews grease down their torpedoes before putting them in the tubes for firing? Nobody else did. Was it to acheive a better seal to give some kind of advantage?

[greenman407]